US 12,450,711 B2
Computer-implemented method and a system for estimating a pith location with regard to a timber board
Tadios Habite, Växjö (SE); Osama Abdeljaber, Växjö (SE); and Anders Olsson, Växjö (SE)
Assigned to MICROTEC AB, Linköping (SE)
Filed by MICROTEC AB, Linköping (SE)
Filed on Oct. 20, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/048,060.
Claims priority of application No. 102021000027281 (IT), filed on Oct. 22, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0125887 A1, Apr. 27, 2023
Int. Cl. G06T 7/00 (2017.01); G06N 3/045 (2023.01)
CPC G06T 7/0004 (2013.01) [G06N 3/045 (2023.01); G06T 2207/20081 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20084 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30161 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for estimating a pith location with regard to a timber board, the timber board comprising four lateral faces developing along a longitudinal axis of the timber board, the method including:
receiving a pixelated actual digital image of each lateral face of at least a longitudinal part of the timber board, extending along a longitudinal axis of the timber board;
identifying an input portion in said longitudinal part of the timber board, where the input portion is a portion of the timber board which extends along the longitudinal axis;
extracting from each pixelated actual digital image of the longitudinal part of the timber board, an input image representing said input portion, so obtaining four input images representing an appearance of the input portion at each lateral face of the timber board;
inputting said four input images into the input layer of an artificial neural network and making the artificial neural network operate; and
reading, at an output layer of the artificial neural network, output data defining a location of a pith of a log from which the timber board has been obtained, in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the timber board at the input portion.